The present invention relates generally to the game of tennis and, more particularly, is directed to a novel tennis net assembly that is designed to capture balls inadvertently hit into a tennis net.
In the game of tennis, a center net divides the tennis court in half, and various lines define the boundaries of the tennis court. Each player hits the ball into the opponent's portion of the court, whereupon the ball is hit back and forth over the net numerous times until one opponent fails to properly return the ball to the opponent's portion of the tennis court. For example, the ball may hit the tennis net, and thereby fail to be delivered to the opponent's side of the court. In such case, the ball oftentimes, after hitting the net, rolls rearwardly approximately midway to the hitter's portion of the court. As a result, in order to start the next point, and to avoid any danger to the players, the ball must be removed from the court. The same may occur during the serve. Specifically, during the serve, if the ball hits the net, the ball may roll rearwardly midway to the server's court. This requires the server to stop serving, walk midway to the net to retrieve the ball, and then return to the service line to serve another ball. This, however, becomes disruptive of play. Further, during a practice session when a basket of balls is continuously hit, the balls that hit the net rebound in many different directions, thereby requiring much time and effort to recover them.
In view of these problems, the use of ball capturing tennis nets is known. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,615,715 to Moore, a ball capturing tennis net is arranged on opposite sides of the main net, substantially parallel thereto, but at a lower height. In such case, the ball capturing tennis nets are tied to the line posts by their own ropes which run along the bottom and top edges thereof. When a ball hits the main tennis net, it moves the main tennis net and the respective ball capturing tennis net away from each other so as to open a space therebetween through which the ball falls and is captured by the ball capturing tennis net. However, the ball capturing tennis net is intended to lie flat against the main net until a ball hits the main net. Therefore, the ball must hit the main net with a sufficient velocity to result in such separation. If the ball is hit with insufficient velocity so that the main tennis net and ball capturing tennis net do not separate, the ball capturing tennis net is ineffective to catch the ball. Thus, for beginning players who do not hit the ball with much speed and/or mishit the ball, the ball capturing tennis net may be ineffective.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,243,221 discloses a ball capturing tennis net which is positioned on opposite sides of the main tennis net. In this arrangement, separate supports are provided for supporting the ball capturing tennis net and are not connected in any manner with the main tennis net. Rather, the ball capturing tennis net and is supported by the separate supports. Therefore, such arrangement is cumbersome to set up and/or remove. In addition, if it is desired to play a conventional game of tennis without the ball capturing tennis net, such ball capturing tennis net may prove to be an obstacle to the game, requiring removal of the same which, as aforesaid, is cumbersome.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,918,711 to Zak discloses a tennis training ball target and projector in which the underside of the net is turned upwardly and is spaced from the main portion of the net by rods at the center and ends thereof. However, such arrangement could not be used with a conventional tennis net since the tennis balls would roll under the tennis net at various times, requiring removal of the balls from different areas of the court. A similar arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 424,322 to Malings et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,280,376 to Clark shows a plurality of ball capturing nets secured at opposite end posts in spaced relation from the main net. A center post is provided, and a center bracket is attached to the center post and also to the capturing nets to space the same from the main net at the center thereof. However, this arrangement could not be used with a conventional tennis net.
Other devices which may be relevant to the present invention, but which are less pertinent than the above-described references are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,823,034; 3,215,432; 4,070,018; 4,203,413; 4,568,089; and 4,575,081.